• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.51-59
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• 2019

Flow forming is an eco-friendly and high-efficiency plastic deformation process with fewer chips during a process which is specifically used to manufacture seamless tubular products like tire wheels, rocket motor cases etc. On the development of mortar barrel using Inconel718 tube, some flow formed products had dimensional errors on their thickness. In this study, our purpose is to optimize the process conditions with the smallest dimensional error. In order to find an optimum process condition, 2D axisymmetric FEM simulation analyses with Taguchi method were conducted. Geometric variables (attack angle, flatting angle, roller nose radius) and operating parameters (depth of forming, feed rate) are considered as control factors. Forward flow forming with single roller was first analyzed to determine the effective factors using AFDEX software and attack angle of the roller was identified as the most influential factor. Also, the nose radius of the rollers was confirmed as a significant factor in multi-rollers flow forming system. The effect of rollers offset values are also studied and finally, we proposed optimal conditions to improve the accuracy of flow forming process with Inconel718 tube for mortar barrel manufacturing.